Ali Nouhou, a 21-year-old refugee from Mali, has built a chair and is painting it in the red, black and green colors of pan-African independence. He is one of five trainees who have been employed as interns by Cucula in Berlin. The organization is pioneering a business model that trains refugees in carpentry and design.

Like many refugees, he is keen to work but his status made it impossible, as a person who is tolerated in the country but forbidden to work.

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